Ever since I got my own DJ equipment, I constantly have the urge to go and mess around with them. They are so addicting! From the day I got the turntables, I just come home from school, get my grub on(because DJing is no fun on an empty stomach) and then go to my room and DJ. On Thursday, I had a precalc test the next day, and I really needed to study for it, but still I came home, and DJed for an hour. Although DJing is a huge distraction for me, it actually allows me to cool off, and relax after a long day at school. This project seems to be making its way into my daily routine, and I don't even think of it as work, but rather a hobby, and something fun. When my sister came home from college and saw me DJing she said, "So I guess this is your new Xbox," and in a sense she was right, as before I used to play Xbox to relax, but now I DJ. My addiction has become so rampant as I often find myself scratching on pieces of paper in class.
So with all this practice and addiction, the question is: Have I gotten any better? Although it is difficult to track my progress when it comes to scratching, I do feel that I have improved. After watching several scratching videos, I recognized that most DJs use something called "samples" to scratch. Samples are essentially short 5-10 second sound bytes that a DJ can loop(play over again). Before learning this I was just scratching just on regular songs. The difference between scratching on a sample and a regular track is that regular songs have a lot of unnecessary bass and noise that doesn't translate to good, clean scratches. In samples, which are meant for scratching, all the unnecessary noise is taken out, so there are clean scratches.
As scratching is one of the main components to DJing, I had to do a little research as to how to scratch besides just moving my hand forward and back. Turns out there are several types of scratches, like patterns of sorts. According to this wiki, there are several kinds of scratches. I have used this website to learn how to do different scratches as it clearly maps when to go forward, back, loud, and cut off the record. This page really helped me learn different scratches as now I have learned the baby scratch, the scribble scratch, and am now working on cut and stab scratches. The latter are much more difficult as they require the control of the crossfader(the thing in the middle that changes from one deck to another). Since this means that both my hands have to actively be moving, it is really difficult. Hopefully after some more practice I will master these scratches.
Overall, I have spent a lot of time working on my scratching abilities, and after I master some more basic scratches, I hope to move on to effects, and then go back to mastering transitioning. Hassan and I have our work cut out for us as we are still unsure about the TED talk, but we will be meeting several times over spring break to map this project out, and hopefully have a crazy performance for our presentation.
So with all this practice and addiction, the question is: Have I gotten any better? Although it is difficult to track my progress when it comes to scratching, I do feel that I have improved. After watching several scratching videos, I recognized that most DJs use something called "samples" to scratch. Samples are essentially short 5-10 second sound bytes that a DJ can loop(play over again). Before learning this I was just scratching just on regular songs. The difference between scratching on a sample and a regular track is that regular songs have a lot of unnecessary bass and noise that doesn't translate to good, clean scratches. In samples, which are meant for scratching, all the unnecessary noise is taken out, so there are clean scratches.
As scratching is one of the main components to DJing, I had to do a little research as to how to scratch besides just moving my hand forward and back. Turns out there are several types of scratches, like patterns of sorts. According to this wiki, there are several kinds of scratches. I have used this website to learn how to do different scratches as it clearly maps when to go forward, back, loud, and cut off the record. This page really helped me learn different scratches as now I have learned the baby scratch, the scribble scratch, and am now working on cut and stab scratches. The latter are much more difficult as they require the control of the crossfader(the thing in the middle that changes from one deck to another). Since this means that both my hands have to actively be moving, it is really difficult. Hopefully after some more practice I will master these scratches.
Overall, I have spent a lot of time working on my scratching abilities, and after I master some more basic scratches, I hope to move on to effects, and then go back to mastering transitioning. Hassan and I have our work cut out for us as we are still unsure about the TED talk, but we will be meeting several times over spring break to map this project out, and hopefully have a crazy performance for our presentation.
I just wanted to say this first that you seem to be on track with your topic. In addition I also think this is extremely impressive what you're doing. I used to want to be a DJ too so I kind of know what you're talking about, but not entirely. It also seems like you're focusing on scratching rather than mixing which was very interesting to me since I always thought that scratching was hard technique to master. However, looking at your first video I think you've got it down. Keep up the good work man!
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